Replenishing crude and fuel stocks could take two years, Saudi Aramco CEO says
USO•Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said replenishing global crude and fuel inventories could take up to two years. Refilling them would add 2 million barrels per day of demand over the next 18 months, he said.
1. Inventories under pressure
Almost 3 billion barrels of oil supply have been lost since the start of the conflict, Nasser said, while 1 billion barrels have been released from global stocks. Refilling inventories would add 2 million barrels per day of demand over the next 18 months, against global daily demand of just over 100 million barrels.
2. Saudi capacity and routes
Saudi Arabia could make its maximum sustainable production capacity of 12 million barrels per day available within days, Nasser said. Aramco is studying additional export routes and more overseas storage to help cover short-term disruptions, and is working on “fourth and fifth” export routes.
3. Limited available storage
Nasser said much of the roughly 6 billion barrels remaining in storage was “not practically available,” because up to 90% is in pipelines or needed for storage tanks to operate. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline moves oil to Red Sea terminals; Nasser said Brent futures would have reached $200 per barrel without it.
